By all early reports, Windows 8 is going to be a good operating system. Microsoft's hegemony may be crumbling in a mobile computing onslaught, but its core empire remains undimmed. However, whereas Windows 7 had three versions, Windows 8 will apparently be ballooning to 9 versions.

...new computers all ship with the same version: Home Premium...I've never heard anyone outside of our geek circle give two shits about this.

I think the problem this creates for MS is "unknown unknowns" - users who don't realize Windows is capable of doing something because they've never seen it. When that happens this strategy backfires for MS - people don't see the point in paying more for something without knowing the advantages, creating the perception that Mac (or Linux) can do something Windows "can't."